Fire in the Sky
by Shax
Summary: Knuckles discovers that Sky Sanctuary is really a machine - but operating it could spell doomsday


FIRE IN THE SKY 

Series 1 - The Origins   
Episode 7 

[Visit Shax's Virtual Den][1]   
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A pre-warning from the author: I wrote series 1 a very long time ago (two years! Wow!), so please forgive me if the thirteen stories of this series are nowhere near as well written as the future series'. These fics are shorter, and have bad punctuation and may have cornier or holier plotlines. They do introduce a lot of future characters and concepts, however. 

CHAPTER ONE: THE MANUSCRIPT 

"TAG!" yelled Knuckles, slapping Sonic on the back. The two were playing tag in the Marble Garden ruins on Floating Island. Knuckles always got the last tag. While Sonic was fast, Knuckles knew every last inch of the island like the back of his knuckle-spiked hand, making him a very tough opponent. Sonic turned and began to chase the athletic echidna through the marble pillars. "Can't catch me, slo-mo!" Knuckles yelled back. Sonic wasn't really slower than Knuckles, it was just that he wasn't used to zig-zagging between pillars, and Knux was. As he was looking back, Knuckles didn't see that he was heading for one of the extremely steep slopes that Marble Garden was known for. He slipped up and began sliding down the hill. Sonic just walked up to the top of the slope and grinned at him. The hill ended at a flat, grassy area. Knuckles continued to slide, beginning to enjoy the trip, until he slammed into the ground below. He moaned and lifted his head up. "Ahoy down there!" Sonic yelled from the top of the hill. Knux smiled. "I dare you to come down here, too!" he yelled up. Sonic smiled and curled up into a spin-dash, about to roll down the hill, when he heard a crashing sound. Un- curling himself, he looked down at where Knuckles had been, and saw a huge hole in the grass. Sonic gasped, and leaped down the hill in four bounds. He looked into the dark, misty hole. "You okay?" he called. There was a massive echo inside the pit. "I think so" came the reply, followed by more echoes. Sonic jumped into the pit and found that it was much lighter inside than it looked from the outside. "Where do you think we are?" asked Sonic. Knuckles walked up to him from the shadows, looking at a doorway in the corner, barricaded with rocks. "I think it's some kind of ancient temple, buried by an avalanche or something." he said. Sonic's gaze shifted to the walls. They were littered with hieroglyphs, just like in the Sandopolean pyramids. "Gee" commented Knuckles, "It's rare to see hieroglyphs outside of Sandopolis. Most of the ancients wrote in English, or some other sort of language." Sonic saw a big picture of the Floating island, followed by a string of other pictures. "Is this some kind of story or something?" asked Sonic. "Probably" replied Knuckles, trying to make out the pictures. Suddenly, his eyes lit up, but he did not stop reading. His mouth shot open, he looked like he was about to explode! "What's wrong?" asked Sonic. Knuckles didn't answer. "Helloooooooo" shouted Sonic. "This could be the key to my past!" announced Knuckles, who hadn't blinked in several minutes. "This could be what I have been looking for for so long!" 

Knuckles began to read out what the hieroglyphs meant. There was a picture of the Floating Island normal, then one with a huge shadow over it. Then there was a big black blob, with what looked like eyes, chasing a couple of echidnas. Knuckles pointed out that the blobby looking thing was an echidnean symbol for evil, and the shadow was disappearance. "This could be the key to why the echidnas disappeared!" Knuckles yelled, ignoring the distortion from the echoes. "There's more!" Sonic pointed out. There was a picture of what looked like the Sky Sanctuary, being built by all these echidnas. Then there was another blob behind the Sky Sanctuary, and then the next picture showed some sort of beam coming from Sky Sanctuary's center-post, which was hitting the blob. Next, the blob had disappeared, but another blob came up behind it, and the next picture showed S.S. without the echidnas all over it, darkened as if in shadow. "They tried to fight off the evil, but the shadow prevailed." Knuckles muttered. "How did they fight something with a whole bunch of floating rocks?" asked Sonic. Knuckles thought a minute, and then it hit him. "Sky Sanctuary wasn't an ancient city built into the clouds!" he said. "It's a cleverly crafted machine!" 

Sonic asked him how, so he explained. "Sky Sanctuary uses the floating properties of the Master Emerald to float all those rocks. Until now, I had assumed that it was an ancient city, although I had always suspected otherwise. Not only are there no records of it anywhere on the island, but on the stones of S.S. themselves, there are absolutely no writings or hieroglyphs, unlike any other city on the island. Now it all makes sense, all those stones and objects orbiting a center post, if they spin around very fast, they can gather energy, and since there are no gears, the stones are free-floating, there is very little friction, allowing it to work much more effectively! Whoever constructed it is a genius!" "But what does it do?" asked Sonic. "According to this, it's a weapon." replied Knuckles. "A weapon we may be able to use against you-know-who's robot army!" 

"How do you use it?" asked Sonic. Knuckles looked around. "It doesn't seem to say..." Then his eyes fixed on a small manuscript folded up in the corner. He took it and read it. The paper was well preserved in the buried temple. The document said:- 

"Far on top of center-post tall, when skin of echidna touches the orb, fury unleashed from floating machine, beware of the power, beware of the power, once the orb is operated, only one way to stop the fury, you..." 

Knuckles stopped reading. "The last bit is torn off!" he said. "So we don't know how to turn it off." added Sonic. "Don't worry" Knuckles assured. "It's sure to be something simple." They heard a voice coming from outside the hole. "Sonic? Knuckles?" It was Tails. He had come with Sonic and Knux to the island, and was spending his time up until now exploring Marble Garden. (It was his favorite place on the Floating Island, apart from Mushroom Hills.) "Hey, little bro!" Sonic yelled up. "How would you like to go on a little adventure to Sky Sanctuary?" "COOL!" yelled Tails, eyes lighting up. So Sonic and Knuckles climbed out of the hole, and left for S.S. It was such a shame that none of them had known that their meddling would lead to the near-destruction of the entire planet. The ancient echidna race was a mystical and powerful one. Nobody knows how some of the things they created were done, and frankly, nobody should ever mess with things that they don't understand. Curiosity killed the cat. 

CHAPTER TWO: PHASE ONE - SHOCKWAVE 

The three walked through the Hidden Palace, the tunnels illuminated by the Super emeralds and the Master emerald, further back in the tunnel. Knuckles led them towards the teleporter, which was all too familiar to the hedgehog and fox, who remembered the last time they were here. They remembered it as if it was yesterday, the fist fight with Knuckles, Knux's terrifying wail as Robotnik stole the Master emerald and he realized he had been betrayed ... Of course, Knux tried to wipe the memory from his mind. They reached the red and blue transportation device on the edge of the tunnel. As always, it made a slight glow in the dim light. Knuckles operated the teleporter, and a wide, white beam shot up from the red sphere on top of the teleporter. Knux stepped into it, and instantly disappeared. Sonic and Tails did the same. 

This was always a thrilling journey. You could feel the sudden rush of being teleported away at an incredible speed. It didn't last long, but still, you could make an absolute fortune selling it to theme parks. About three seconds later, they found themselves standing on an identical teleporter sphere to the one they left Hidden Palace on, except this one was one of the four main transportation devices on Sky Sanctuary, the series of blocks and disks that free-float above Floating Island, and orbit the massive center pole. Sonic loved this place, and was excited to get the chance to visit it again. "To think Robotnik nearly destroyed this place!" he said, smiling. "It was Mecha, really." replied Knuckles. "He was so desperate to knock you off, that he nearly reduced the place to rubble. He obliterated a few of the large floating stones, I hope this thing will still do what it's supposed to do." They made their way to the twisting pathway that wound around the center pole in a couple of leaps and bounds. Sonic began to run as fast as he could around and around the pathway, as if being attacked by the Death Egg again. He was showing off. Tails and Knuckles, not being able to run nearly as fast as Sonic, just walked up, giving him a sarcastic smile. Sonic reached the top in one minute, and waited another fifteen minutes for the others to get to the top. "Gee, what took you?" Sonic asked, smirking. Knuckles pretended to shove him off the wide stone pillar. "GOSH!" yelled Tails. "It's really high up here!" Sonic looked over the edge, and an electric shock attacked his spine. You could see Floating Island, as big as a fifty cent piece, hovering far below. Sonic felt like getting on his hands and knees and gripping onto the ground for dear life! "I've never been to the top of the center pole!" said Knuckles, admiring the view. He turned, and noticed a wide, round, 'man-hole' cover in the center of the circular stone pole-top. He got down on his hands and knees and attempted to lift it. Sonic and Tails helped him. Eventually, there was a click, and then what sounded like an airlock opening. Then, the cover slowly lifted away to reveal a small, red / black orb lying on a short post in a tiny dent in the ground. On the top of the orb was the shape of a hand, about the size of Knuckles', indented into....whatever material the orb was made out of. Knuckles held out his hand to touch it. "WAIT!" yelled Sonic. Knuckles looked up. "What if it shocks you or something?" Knux shrugged, and proceeded to touch the ball. "WAIT!" yelled Sonic again. Again, Knuckles stopped. "How do we aim this thing at Robotropolis?" Knuckles shrugged again. "One way to find out!" He reached for the orb again. "WAIT!" yelled Sonic. "Everything will be revealed in a second!" Knuckles said, before Sonic had a chance to say anything. Sonic was obviously edgy about this thing. Knuckles quickly put his hand in the imprinted shape on the orb. He knew he had to be quick, before Sonic stopped him again. Because of the shape of his glove, his hand didn't quite fit. Knuckles closed his eyes, and waited for the machine to start up... 

Nothing. Knux opened his eyes and stared at the orb. Nothing happened. "Well, I guess that's that, then." he said, a little disappointed, removing his hand from the orb. The machine obviously had stopped working. Knux began to close the lid again. "Wait!" said Tails. "Didn't that note say that your SKIN had to touch the orb?" Knuckles thought for a second. "Yeah! That's right!" he said, re-opening the lid. "Hey, wait a minute..." Sonic said. "How did you know what the note said? You weren't there!" Tails blushed a little. "I was kinda....eavesdropping." he admitted. Knuckles peeled off his glove. "I don't think I've ever seen you without your gloves on!" said Sonic. As Knuckles removed his right glove, Sonic and Tails were met with a horrifying sight. Knuckles' hand was deformed! His skin became rough and scaly, and two of his fingers were half joined together. Not to mention the middle knuckle bones, which were elongated, and joined at a point a couple of centimeters above his hand. Knuckles noticed their stares and smiled. "Why else do you think I wear mitten-gloves with two points on the top?" he asked. Sonic shrugged. "I always thought the knuckles were part of the glove, like a portable weapon, or something!" Knux smiled. "If you think this is bad, you NEVER wanna see my left hand!" He shoved his hand into the dent in the orb. It fit perfectly, except for the joined fingers. The orb began to glow red, getting brighter and brighter. Suddenly, there was a huge earthquake-like rumble, and Knux was engulfed in light. By the time the light faded, Knuckles realized that he was falling. Falling from the tower. And, oh boy, was it a long way down! 

Knux closed his eyes, and stopped falling with a jolt. Looking up, he noticed...Tails! Knux was to thankful for words! Tails landed him back on the tower. "Okay" said Knux. "We have to get off this thing. I'll glide down, and, Tails, can you fly Sonic down?" Tails agreed, and they left the tower, which was now shaking more than jell-o. When they reached the ground, they noticed changes to Sky Sanctuary. First of all, the stones and discs began to orbit the center pole, moving faster and faster. Then, when they were moving at a steady 100km/h, the four main teleporters seemed to charge up, and did something Sonic, Tails and Knux hadn't seen them do before, they shot out thin red beams, which met each other and terminated just above the orb, which was now glowing a furious red. The beams made the apex of a rotating pyramid. One of the changes the three didn't see, however, was a small board with five different colored light bulbs come up from the ground just beside the orb. The first light, the red one, lit up suddenly. The words underneath the light read 'phase one'. 

"It's fantastic!" said Knuckles. "I wonder what it does?" Just then, the thin pole underneath the glowing orb, hand shape now invisible, began to lift, pushing the orb upwards into the four beams. When the orb touched the beams, it stopped. The beams seemed to be 'feeding' the orb, although darned if anybody knew what the heck it would do. Suddenly, the orb glowed a bright orange, and a likewise coloured beam shot from it, in the direction of Knuckles. 

Knuckles just managed to get out of the way, and the beam hit the ground with an explosion. "WHOA!" yelled Sonic, frantically. "It's shooting at US!?!" The three turned and ran into the forest. Beams were shooting everywhere, now, shooting at anything which was alive, birds, animals, it seemed to be using some kind of body heat sensors to target things. There was a funny noise coming from behind him, and Tails turned around to look. It was a big mistake. A bright orange beam ripped though the air, and slammed into the little fox's forehead. Intense pain shot through his body, and everything went dark. 

CHAPTER THREE: PHASE TWO - ICE PLAGUE 

Sonic saw the beam slap into Tails' head. The orange fox snapped erect, eyes filled with terror, then he fell to the ground, curled up into a fetus position, and stopped moving. Sonic let out a wail, spun around, snatched up Tails and ran into the forest. 

Knuckles felt Tails' pulse. "Still beating," he said. "He's just unconscious." "We have to take him to Knothole, then come back and stop this thing!" said Sonic. So they headed to Sonic's plane, so they could get the poor fox to the mainland. But, as the engines started up, they didn't realize that a change was occurring at Sky Sanctuary. The little red light turned off on the board near the orb. The orb began to descend from the four beams, and when it was back at it's original position, the lid automatically closed over it. The four beams turned off, and the stones and discs slowed down and stopped. But this was not the end. Five seconds later, the second light, the light blue one, lit up, and the stones and discs began to turn in the other direction. The four larger blocks that held the teleporters began to turn slowly, until they were upside-down. Then the under-side of the center-post began to open, and a strange gun-like object slowly descended. The teleporters shot four thin blue beams towards the gun, which in turn began to glow. Then the gun shot a thick beam straight down, which hit the ground. Out of the beam of light, a cold white substance began to crystallize. And then it spread. 

Sonic landed his plane on the outskirts of the Great Forest, and ran towards Knothole with Tails. Knuckles tagged along behind him, deep in thought about how to stop the Sky Sanctuary. When they reached Knothole, Petals was there sitting on a log. When she saw Tails, she didn't seem to be the least sympathetic. "Heh. Another accident, huh?" she asked. "Not surprised." Sonic just ignored her, and ran to Sally's. He burst into her hut, panting uncontrollably. "What's wrong!" Sally asked. "Tails" replied Sonic, panting too much to say more. Sally put the small form on the bed. He was no longer curled up in a tight ball, he had gone limp. "He's unconscious." Sally pointed out. "How did this happen?" Knuckles walked in and explained the whole thing to her. She shook her head in frustration. "You shouldn't mess with things like that." she said. "Tails is beginning to heal. I'll tend to him, you go back to Floating Island and set things right." Sonic nodded and left the hut, followed by Knuckles. Knux noticed that Sonic was still panting. "You need a rest." he said. "You rest a while while I go back to the island and stop that thing." Sonic sat down and rested, while Knuckles ran off towards the coast. 

Knux parted the last two trees, then scanned the horizon for his island. He found it, but it wasn't a pretty sight. Knuckles strained his eyes to try and see what was wrong with the island. It was completely white, and very light shades of blue. Was it covered in foam or something? He climbed a tree to get a better view. Was that SNOW? How could Floating Island be covered in snow? Wait, there was movement. Was the ice........growing? That's impossible! No, wait, it was! The ice and snow quickly reached out like a giant arm until it hit the ocean. Then the water in the ocean stopped splashing. It became perfectly flat. Then, as Knux dropped out of the tree, he saw that that was because it was frozen! The entire sea began to freeze, right up to the beach about 40 metres from where Knuckles was standing. Then, on the sand, small ice crystals began to appear. Then, the ice and snow appeared, and began to spread at an alarming rate. As Knux watched the snow engulf the entire beach, then come towards him, one word was suddenly whispered in his mind. "run". 

*************** 

Sonic heard a scream coming from ahead of him in the forest. "Knux?" he asked. "Is that you? I'm here - I decided to come after you!" He heard rushing footsteps, and bushes being shoved aside. Then he saw Knuckles, a little lighter in complexion than usual, as if scared, burst out in front of him. The echidna stopped in front of him, panting frantically. He suddenly looked very scared and very serious. "Run." he said. "Run faster and harder than you ever thought you could. Don't look back." Sonic began to question him, but he instead stared in amazement as the trees behind Knuckles were engulfed in snow and ice. Knuckles let out a screech and started to run, but the creeping ice burst out from the bushes and came in contact with his toes. His foot stuck to the ground, rendering him unable to run. The ice crept up the struggling echidna's leg, then spread to his body and other leg. Then it reached his arms, and swallowed them up as well. Then it came to his head. As it smothered him, Knuckles whispered "Save yourself!" in a raspy voice. Then Sonic realized that he was staring at an ice sculpture of Knuckles, glittering in the sun, with a facial expression that could frighten you. Sonic turned and ran, in fear that he will share the echidna's fate. The creeping ice followed him, at an alarming speed, turning everything in its path to ice. 

************** 

Sonic reached Knothole. At first he couldn't explain why the villagers weren't frantically running about, but then he realized that they didn't know about the ice. He had to warn them! He saw Sally and Streak coming towards him. "Good news!" said Sally. "Tails is awake! Do you want to see...." Sonic didn't let her finish. "BAD news!" he interrupted. "We have to evacuate the forest. NOW!" Sally looked confused. What in blazers for? Robot attack?" she asked. "No" replied Sonic. "No time to explain, just get everybody you can out of here and run for dear life!" Sally became alarmed. "What is it!?!" she demanded. "Tell me!" "I think we better just do what he says!" Streak insisted. Then there was a crashing sound, and over the hill came an avalanche of ice and snow. Sally let out a shrill scream when she saw that it was turning the trees to ice. 

Sonic and Sally didn't have to evacuate Knothole, the village evacuated itself when the villagers saw the huts turning to ice. They all ran away, Sonic and Streak were fastest, followed by Sally, Sage, Tails, Rotor, Bunnie, Petals, and then the rest of the villagers. Sage began to run faster, and eventually caught up to Sonic. "Hey what's going on?" he asked. "Yeah, what's with the killer summer snow?" Streak added. "It's a long story" replied Sonic, "But I'm pretty sure it has to do with something that happened on Floating Island today." He looked back and saw that most of the villagers had disappeared, and Bunnie was now last. Then she fell back, and Rotor tried to save her, but they both ended up as ice statues. The ice was now really close, and only Tails, Sally, Sage, Streak and Sonic were still running from it. Tails began to slow down. He spun his tails around, trying to get a speed up, but it was no use. "Sonic! HELP!" he yelled, being engulfed by the tidal wave of ice. "TAILS!" Sonic yelled. "NO!" but he saw a small ice statue of a fox come out the other end of the snowdrift's wake. It wasn't long until Sally tripped over a rock, and screamed as she fell victim to the ice. "We're gonna be next if we don't do something!" Sage yelled. Streak got an idea, looking at a blocked cave in the mountains. "If we can't outrun it, we'll have to outsmart it!" he said, holding out his hands, and letting rip a huge bolt of electricity. Sage was amazed, as he had not seen Streak's amazing powers in action before. (Streak rarely did it except in emergencies, as he claimed it made him feel tired.) The powerful bolt struck the mountain and blew a hole in it, revealing a roomy cave. "ALL ABOARD!" he shouted, as they ran into the cave. Then Streak turned and did another huge lightning bolt, this time causing an avalanche, and blocking them inside the cave, in the pitch dark. There was a crash from outside as the ice hit the mountain, but could not get into the cave. "Well, it looks like we will be the only three people on Mobius after this." said Sonic. "Which means we are the only three people on Mobius that can undo the effects of this thing. We're in for a long adventure, I expect." "And me without my arrows." said Sage. 

With a little help from Streak's electric touch, Sonic and Sage dug themselves out of the cave. What they saw was an arctic wasteland, exactly like the icecaps on Floating Island, only it stretched across the entire continent - maybe the world. Luckily, the ice must stop its spreading quality once it has been created, so it was safe to stand on without becoming an ice statue. They wandered through the ice towards the forest. Sonic knew that the planet being turned to ice was a terrible thing, but he couldn't help noticing how downright beautiful everything was. All the trees and plants were practically transparent, and twinkling in the sunlight. You could just see Robotropolis over the hill, it looked like a little arctic city. The whole world looked as if it was made out of glass. What was really strange was the snow. It was just a little wet, like normal snow, but despite the fact that it was the middle of summer and must have been 35 degrees, the snow didn't start to melt. It was a strange feeling, when they were knee deep in snow and it was 35 degrees as well. It felt like everything below your waist had frostbite, and everything above was melting. (This is according to Sonic's own recollection, as I personally was an ice statue in the frozen forest at this time.) Suddenly, as Sonic went over a hill, he came face to face with Mecha Sonic and an army of SWAT bots! "Mecha!" he yelled. Then he realized that they were frozen. Sonic got a little laugh out of seeing his arch rival just standing there looking like a snowman. Sage and Streak caught up to him. "Hey, ice blocks!" said Streak. "Evil robot favour! Yum yum!" The three by-passed the frozen line of robots, and began to make their way towards the coast. 

An hour later, they had managed to trudge to what used to be the coast, but was now an endless sheet of perfectly flat ice, like a frozen lake, only it was the ocean. There was only one flaw in the endless flatness. It was something huge in the air, attached firmly to the frozen water with a pillar of ice. The giant object was also made up of ice and snow. "Floating Island." said Sonic, staring at it. There was only the slightest movement on the island, yellow / orange stones rotating around a thick, tall pole in the air, with a light blue beam coming from the underside. "I knew Sky Sanctuary was doing this." Sonic said. "Apparently the weapon has more than one property. We have to stop it before it starts doing something else." 

CHAPTER FOUR: PHASE THREE - STONE STORM 

By this time, the entire surface of Mobius was covered in ice, everything alive was frozen solid. As the creeping plague of ice finished blanketing the planet, the beam on S.S. turned off, and the gun contracted back into the main pole. The blue light on the board turned off, and the stones and discs halted their orbit. A few seconds later, another light lit up on the small board - a brown / orange one. The stones and discs began to orbit faster than ever, and a strange sound, like a generator, could be heard deep inside the stone covering of the main pole. Then, the entire top of the pole lifted, and a strange pipe began to slowly move out of the center. When it finished its movement, the generator sound became louder, and thick, black cloud began to emerge from the pipe in large puffs. 

Sonic and Sage slipped across the ice hopelessly, but Streak seemed to be able to skate across it with ease. "What's the matter, never ice skated before?" he asked, grinning and showing off. Sage began to giggle. "I'm not that bad, am I?" asked Sonic, trying to stay up. "No, I've just been thinking of a tongue twister!" replied Sage. Sonic looked at him strangely. "Sonic, Sage and Streak skate to Sky Sanctuary to stop the sinister stuff!" said Sage. "Sinister stuff?" asked Sonic. "I'm still working on it!" said Sage. "I think Sage should cease his skit 'cause it's silly and strange and pretty stupid." said Streak. "Okay, okay!" said Sage. Just then, there was a cracking sound beneath Streak's feet. His mouth made an 'O' of surprise when the ice gave way and he plunged into the freezing cold water. 

Sonic ran over, slipped, and nearly fell into the water himself. He managed to reach into the icy cold pool and retrieve Streak. "That was close!" said Streak, seemingly not shocked. The three reached the frozen island, and found that the icy pole that held the island in place was a lot rougher than the shiny smooth pole that they saw from further off. It would be fairly easy to climb. Sage found it the easiest, as he had learned a thing or two about mountain climbing back on the Chaos Isle. "Come on slow-pokes!" he yelled down to Sonic and Streak. When they all reached the island, they found it was just like the rest of Mobius, an icy wasteland. They saw Sky Sanctuary in the clouds, rotating speedily. Out of the top, there was a great big thick black storm cloud. There was the sound of thunder, and droplets of water began to fall. "What's it gonna do, RAIN us to death?" Sonic asked. The cloud slowly began to take over the sky, and everything went dark. "What do we do once we get to S.S.?" asked Streak. "Dunno" replied Sonic. "When we read the scroll in Marble Gardens, the part about de-activating it was torn off." "Wait a second, time out!" said Sage, making a 'T' with his hands. "You mean that we don't know how to stop it? How do we know there IS a way?" "Oh, there's a way. Don't you worry!" said Sonic. "Where there's a will, there's a way. And I think each one of us is very willing to shut down this thing." There was a deafening clap of thunder, and the rain began to come down in buckets. "Anyone bring an umbrella?" asked Streak. The sky lit up with lightning, and there was more thunder. The wind began to blow harder than ever. "It's a monsoon!" Sonic yelled. "We'll have to find cover!" Just then, Sonic was hit in the back of the head with a rock. He let out a yell, and stopped to see what hit him. It was a small statue of a parrot, wings outstretched, in flight. "The wind's blowing statues around!" he said, raising his voice above the noise of the storm. "Uhh, that's not a statue!" Streak said, also raising his voice. "What do you mean?" asked Sonic. "It was a real bird!" answered Streak. "I saw it happen! The lightning struck it, and it turned to stone!" 

Sonic stared at the statue. It DID look very realistic. Then there was another flash of lightning, and another stone bird fell from the sky. "THE LIGHTNING TURNS THINGS TO STONE!" Sonic screamed, so that Streak and Sage would hear. "RUN! WE NEED TO FIND COVER!" They ran through the rain, and Sonic realized that they were in Sandopolis. It looked very strange, first of all, because it was raining, which hardly ever happened in the desert, and secondly, instead of sand, there was a thick layer of snow. But Sandopolis was the worst place they could be, because it was miles of flat land, and the three desperately needed shelter from the stone lightning. "There isn't shelter anywhere!" Sonic yelled. "There!" Sage shouted in reply. There was a small pyramid-like temple in the middle of nowhere, but it was on top of a steep outcrop of rock.....err...... ice. When it was rock, it would have been easy to climb, but it was covered in ice, and the rain was making it even slipperier. "I'll have to push you up!" said Sage, knowing he would be able to climb it but the others wouldn't. They ran up to it, just as a stone bat landed on the ground beside them, upside down, wings outstretched. Sonic got up next to the icy pillar, and Sage got underneath him and pushed him up, like an elevator. Then Streak got next to the ice, and Sage began to lift him. Sonic ran towards the temple, and the sky lit up brightly for an instant, and there was a clap of thunder. More lightning. It was pretty close, too. Sonic got to the door of the temple safely, and waited for the others to catch up. He didn't see any movement through the thick streams of rain. "STREAK! SAGE! HURRY UP!" he yelled. No movement. They must have been having trouble getting up. Sonic ran through the rain again to the edge of the ice. He dropped and reached for the two. He got a hold of Streak's hand, He pulled and pulled, but he couldn't get him up. He was too heavy. He rolled over so he could get both hands over the side, but when his eyes met Streak's he knew what was wrong. Sage was frozen in a sitting position, holding Streak up, pushing him upwards. Streak was reaching for the cliffside with one arm. Neither were moving, and both were a dark grey colour. They were solid stone. 

CHAPTER FIVE: PHASE FOUR - SLEEP MIST 

Sonic realized he was alone, as he sat inside the old temple, trying to get to sleep. "I have to save the entire planet." he thought to himself. "I'm the only one alive on the planet, and I have to save it." He thought to himself that maybe stopping the Sky Sanctuary wouldn't help his friends at all. Maybe the damage was done. Maybe nothing could thaw out Knuckles, or Tails, or anyone else in Knothole. Maybe nothing could restore Streak and Sage to flesh. But he decided that he had to hope. If he didn't have hope, what did he have? But he wasn't sure he had what it takes to stop S.S. Maybe he was doomed, maybe he wasn't strong enough to do whatever it was that he had to do. Suddenly, with that thought, he vaguely remembered a song in his head. Where he had learned it, he couldn't remember. 

"When you're strong, you can fly, you can reach the other side of the rainbow. It's all right, take a chance, because there ain't no circumstance that you can't handle. When you use your mind." 

Somehow that song gave him strength. He sang it to himself as he drifted slowly to sleep. 

"Mr. Bad's got it good, but this ain't his neighborhood, he's taking over, no, no..... 

********************* 

The rain stopped abruptly, and the wide pipe contracted back into Sky Sanctuary, the 'lid' closing on top of it. The brownish light turned off and a normal clear bulb lit up. The teleporter rays switched off, and the stones and discs began to rotate very slowly. The four teleporters raised, and began to pump out thick, grey mist. 

Sonic woke up and looked outside the temple. The clouds were clearing up, a blue sky trying to shine through. "This is my chance" Sonic mumbled to himself. "If I can just make it through to Sky Sanctuary before it starts to do something else, I can stop it much easier." He ran towards the secret entrance to the Hidden Palace. He found it, it was a small teleportation device hidden in the bushes. As it was hovering slightly above the ground, the ice plague could not get to it. It was still un-frozen. Sonic stepped up onto it, and was immediately engulfed in light. He appeared in a familiar place, a luminescent blue and purple temple, formed mostly from cooled magma from an ancient eruption of the molten materials in Lava Reef. Since it was deep underground, the ice had also been unable to affect it. The hedgehog ran down the corridors, trying to find the teleporter that would take him to Sky Sanctuary. He found it, it was a small red ball raised on a base, exactly like the four on Sky Sanctuary. He stepped on it, and waited for the light beam. It came out of the teleporter with a strange sound, and Sonic was flung into a spin dash, and disappeared into the beam. 

He appeared on one of the teleporters on on one of the orbiting stones on the floating machine. Luckily, they were orbiting very slowly, allowing Sonic to keep balance. He was instantly met with this strange foul smelling fog. It was all over Sky Sanctuary like a blanket. Suddenly, Sonic began to feel very sleepy. He fell to his knees, and then collapsed. He decided that he can't save the world when he had had inadequate rest. After all, S.S. wasn't going anywhere, now that he was in it. He closed his eyes and went to sleep, in the middle of the bizarre fog. 

In his dreams, he saw a figure. He couldn't quite tell what it was, it may have been Nights. The figure came in a hazy shape, and began to speak. "Sonic" it said. "You must not go deeper into sleep. You must wake up immediately and continue on your quest. If you fall asleep now, you shall never awaken." Sonic struggled to awaken, and he suddenly found himself lying on his back, staring through the thick fog at the sky. He still felt very sleepy, and realized it must have been the fog that was doing it to him. Another of the Sky Sanctuary's tricks. He ran to the edge of the stone block, and jumped towards the center pole. He landed on the twisting cork-screw pathway that wound up to the top. He began to run around it, but found himself falling asleep. He forced his eyes open, and continued to run. When he had nearly reached the top, he noticed that the movement of S.S. was changing. He saw a small panel on the wall beside him. It was badly eroded. He struggled to read it. It said something like: 

"Beware the machine, make sure to hide from it's powers. When activated, the following will occur: 

Phase one is the shock beam. It will temporarily knock out all the evil creatures that are in close range to the machine, disabling them until phase two hits. 

Phase two will surround the island and planet with a powerful frozen substance, much like ice, that will freeze any evil creatures that are on foot. Make sure all allies are hidden in a tight cave etc. to prevent them being frozen. 

Phase three will disable all evil creatures in flying ships, or that were hidden from phase two, by turning them to stone. 

Phase four is a thick mist that will hide the machine. The mist effects the brain and places the subject in a coma. This is to prevent phase five from being interrupted by the evil creatures. 

Phase five will destroy all creatures that were effected by any of the above phases." 

"Oh great!" said Sonic. "We go through all this trauma, and NOW I find something that describes every phase in full detail, and how to escape it!" He thought about it. This writing seemed different than other writings on the island, it was more scientific than ancient. It must have been much more recent, maybe the more modern inhabitants of the island wrote it when they realized the danger of the machine. He stared at the last part. The one about phase five. He was obviously in phase four at the moment, because of the mist, so there was not much time left until phase five. He stared at that word, 'destroy'. "Uh oh" he thought. "Not good. Not good at all." 

CHAPTER SIX: PHASE FIVE - DEATH 

Sonic reached the top, just in time to see the small light board in the middle, near the glowing orb. The clear light turned off, and the last light, a black one, lit up. Sonic had never seen a black light before, it was strange. Suddenly, there was a rumbling sensation, and the ground heated up. Sonic looked over the edge, and saw that there were four huge guns emerging from the side of the pole. Sonic went into panic. It was only seconds before the weapon went into overdrive, and fried the entire planet, and Sonic didn't know how to stop it. He tried to think of what he could possibly do to stop something so huge. No, it was hopeless. He was about a thousandth of the size of this thing. He stared at the small red glowing orb, it was glowing even brighter, as if mocking him. As he stared at the orb, he began to go frantic, struggling to think about how he could possibly do it. Suddenly, he calmed. The strange song came back to him. 

"Make your move, break it out, that's what life is all about, it's your adventure, yeah yeah." he started to hum the tune. A strange sound came from inside Sky Sanctuary, a whirring sound, and the four huge guns began to power up. Sonic concentrated on the song. "Make your move, break it out". The guns began to turn to aim. "Break it out. Break it out." Suddenly, Sonic knew what he had to do. He turned into a ball, and powered up for a spin dash. The guns had powered up, and were ready to shoot. Strange rays began to spew from the guns, and the ground began to shake. Sonic blasted into the fastest spin dash he had ever done, and suddenly he slammed into the orb and bounced off. There was a giant crack down the side of it, now. There was a huge explosion, and Sonic nearly tumbled from the top. The center pole turned at an angle, and a few of the orbiting stones flew off in random directions. Smoke emerged from cracks in the stone. The black light vanished, and the glow on the orb died. The center pole moved into its original position, and the smoke stopped. Everything went silent. Sonic looked over the edge and saw that the four guns were charred, and burned out. Sonic had saved Mobius. 

EPILOGUE: 

Soon after, everything began to thaw out. Instead of turning to liquid, the strange ice simply began to vanish. Knuckles stood on the coast, looking at his island, now green again. He smiled. Streak and Sage were restored, as well, and the island was now flourishing again. 

I thawed out, as well. When I went to Knothole to ask what happened, I was told that story. And now I just told it to you. The orb broken, Sky Sanctuary should never be a problem again. Then again, nobody should have played with powers they don't understand in the first place. It is still a mystery, how the ancient echidnas manufactured such a complex machine. But Knuckles, after that experience, isn't sure he wants to know. According to him, it is just another pointless artifact on his island. The floating artifact he calls 'Sky Sanctuary.'. 

THE END 

SERIES ONE CHRONOLOGY:   
1. Time and Space   
2. I Am Your Evil Twin   
3. Micro-Sonic   
4. Android Wars   
5. Chaos   
6. Diary of a Mad Assassin   
7. Fire in the Sky   
8. The Guests of Honor   
9. Time and Punishment   
10. The Secret Past   
11. Tale of a Rocket Knight   
12. Cyber Sonic   
13. Apocalypse

   [1]: http://www.stas.net/1/shax/Virtualden.html
   [2]: mailto:Shaxr@angelfire.com



End file.
